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Spring 2012

The World at Play

Faculty

Description

This course will explore imaginative play by people around the world and consider its social and cultural uses. In material ranging from Balinese cockfights to Charlie Chaplin films, we will investigate the relevance of joking, parody, and other acts of creative improvisation to people's lives and world views. Students will analyze a form of play of their own choosing and assess selected theories in sociocultural anthropology (resistance, structural functionalism, cultural relativism) as well as analytical techniques in linguistic anthropology and discourse analysis. Far from being inconsequential, acts of fun will be revealed as patterned interactions that index and refract cultural values.